Your Weekly Dose (1/31/22)
No unifying themes to this week’s prescriptions…just a damn good film, TV series, and book that you should check out when you have time. As always, thanks for subscribing and sharing. Take care.
FILM
The Fallout
One of my favorite films last year, Mass, was about the impact of a school shooting on the parents of the shooter and the parents of one of the victims, without ever showing the actual shooting. The Fallout, another restrained film about the horrific tragedy of school shootings, doesn’t show the actual event but instead focuses on the emotional, psychological, and spiritual fallout in the lives of two teenage girls that overhear the shooting while hiding in the bathroom. Vada (Jenna Ortega) is a quiet skater girl, who is intimidated by classmate and social media maven, Mia (Maddie Ziegler). But hiding from a school shooter bonds them in ways neither of them expected. The film follows Vada as she attempts to make sense of the event and becomes increasingly withdrawn from family and friends, finding solace in Mia’s company, who often drinks alone at home while her fathers are away traveling for work.
The Fallout is a fierce film, full of quiet rage, dignity, and love. It boasts pitch-perfect performances from all the cast and an especially captivating, star-making turn from Ortega. As you might expect, the themes of trauma and PTSD are at the forefront here. I can see how the ending might be a divisive one, but I found it particularly intriguing as it opens up another avenue through which to approach those themes. I don’t want to spoil it here, but the ending raises questions about technology, threats, perceived threats, and feelings of (in)security. This ending and the characters’ suffering throughout the film are indictments on our politicians’ unwillingness to act decisively to prevent further atrocities. Unfortunately, if the gruesome deaths of hundreds of teenagers won’t spur them to just action, it’s unlikely a film will either, no matter how good it is.
The Fallout is currently streaming on HBOMax.
TV
Abbott Elementary
Huge tonal shift here, even as we stay in school for this week’s film prescription. The latest mockumentary series (and one of the best!), Abbott Elementary, follows a group of five teachers and the principal of an underfunded elementary school in Philadelphia. Creator Quinta Brunson stars as Janine Teagues a bright-eyed, optimistic teacher beset by a lack of resources, rambunctious students, and colleagues that run that gamut from well-meaning but tone-deaf peers (Chris Perfetti’s Jacob) to grizzled veterans (Sheryl Lee Ralph’s Barbara and Lisa Ann Walter’s Melissa) to a principal (Janelle James’ Ava) that is just as concerned with her latest TikTok video as she is with her faculty’s budget requests.
Abbott Elementary works not only because it is a frequently laugh-out-loud funny workplace comedy, but because it is actually about something, or rather a few somethings. It is a celebration of the heroic efforts of dedicated public school teachers, who “answer the call.” It is a critique of our unwillingness to properly fund public education, especially in poorer communities. Thanks to the good humor and smart writing, it never comes off as preachy. And while the series leans heavily on its Philly setting, its events and themes are universal.
New episodes of Abbott Elementary premiere on ABC on Tuesdays at 9/8c and on Hulu the following day. The first 5 episodes are currently streaming on Hulu. I binged them all over the weekend, and now upcoming episodes might well be appointment television for me.
Oh William!
Oh how I love this book! I am literarily infatuated with its narrator, Lucy Barton, and I want to see the world and the people in it through author Elizabeth Strout’s eyes. In her latest novel, Oh William!, Strout returns to the beloved Lucy (My Name is Lucy Barton (2016) and Anything is Possible (2017)), who grieves the death of her second husband, David, even as she continues to maintain a friendship/connection with her first husband, William. When William learns a shocking fact about his family’s past, she accompanies him on a trip from their respective homes in New York City to Maine to investigate. Along the way, Lucy reflects on her impoverished upbringing, various significant moments in both her marriages, her daughters’ lives, and the realities of co-existing with ultimately unknowable people, even if they are our family.
Strout writes with such purity of heart and language. There is a sense of both a profound love of life itself and a fascination with those with whom we share it. There are frequent acknowledgments of just how confounding and frustrating it all can be as well: “This is the way of life: the many things we do not know until it is too late.” Perhaps the Oh in Oh William! is the perfect way to respond to the enthusiasm and exasperation that life brings. And the only way, it seems, that we can move through this world with any integrity is with the humility and empathy that Lucy embodies. Oh William! is a tremendous novel, and in it, Strout, at least for me, becomes something of a mentor, encouraging me to be more patient, kind, and understanding.
Oh William! is available wherever books are sold, but consider purchasing a copy from The Briar Patch in Bangor, ME.